Hours after scoring a victory in the House to effectively kill Obamacare, US President Donald Trump praised Australia’s universal healthcare system during a press conference with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“It’s going to be fantastic healthcare,” Trump said, referring to his new healthcare plan. “I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia because you have better healthcare than we do,” CNN reported.
US Senator Bernie Sanders quickly picked up on the remark that came after Trump’s new bill passed by a handful of votes. The new law still has to pass the US Senate.
“Well, Mr. President, you’re right! In Australia and every other major country on Earth, they guarantee healthcare to all people. They don’t throw 24 million people off health insurance. So maybe when we get to the Senate, we should start off with looking at the Australian healthcare system,” Sanders said.
Australia has a universal healthcare system, known as Medicare, which gives citizens free access to doctors and public hospitals paid for by the government.
In the US, the new Republican bill will significantly cut the amount of government support for Medicaid, which provides healthcare support to some US citizens.
Australia’s healthcare system is mostly funded by the government while relying on private health insurance for some services.
In 2014, the Australian government spent 9% of its GDP on healthcare, compared to the 17% spent by the United States the same year.
Healthcare in the US is much more complicated, as there is no broad overarching government-funded healthcare system.
Instead, the majority of healthcare providers are privately run and health insurance can be purchased to use them.
The vast majority of health insurance is provided by US citizens’ employers, although tens of millions of Americans remain uninsured.
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